France is going through its longest warmest spring period, with at least 37 consecutive days above normal, a period of high heat made more likely by global warming.

It was between 28 and 34°C this week in most regions, an unusual temperature for the season.

Even in Brittany, the island of Bréhat has equaled its record dating from May 31, 1992, with 27.8°C.

At Cap Ferret, which broke its record with 35°C, “we were hot at the service”, told AFP Pascal, who serves customers at the ice cream shop “O Sorbet d’Amour Cap Ferret”, while at Cape Point. “We didn’t have that many people, they are caulked at home or they are at the beach”.

At Hortense, a chic restaurant in Cap Ferret, “if you’re sitting by the beach drinking a glass of wine, it’s going to be fine. But for us servers, it’s more complicated, you have to put on a hat and drink a lot,” Jérémy Leporcq told AFP.

Given the average temperatures of the first 17 days of the month, it is “now very likely” that May 2022 will become the hottest May on record in France, beating May 2011, also said Météo-France.

“It is an episode of heat, lasting, extensive and intense, exceptional for the season,” Matthieu Sorel, climatologist at Météo-France, explained to AFP on Monday, even if the episode does not correspond to the technical definition of a “heat wave”.

For this categorization, the “national thermal indicator”, the average of temperatures recorded at 30 points spread over the entire metropolitan territory, must exceed 25.3°C for three consecutive days, which will not be the case.